The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Yakubu Gowon

  • Nobody can change UNILAG’s name, says Gowon

    Nobody can change UNILAG’s name, says Gowon

    The controversy over the  renaming of the University of Lagos resurfaced yesterday at the institution’s 2012/2013 convocation.

    Its name will not be changed, former Head of State Gen. Yakubu Gowon assured the students.

    Two years ago, President Goodluck Jonathan announced the change of name from the University of Lagos to Moshood Abiola University of Lagos. Stakeholders in the institution protested the decision.

    Gen. Gowon, who was the Special Guest of Honour at the ceremony, said UNILAG’ had come to stay provided students would continue to maintain good conduct and not drag the university’s name in the mud.

    The former Head of State told the 3,264 graduands: “I hope you will live up to that very good reputation and ensure that you maintain the good name of this university. Rest assured that nobody can change the name of this university from what it is; so my congratulations and I wish you well in life.

    “I know that there is problem about employment but don’t you worry. I am sure effort are being made so that whatever it is you can get employment procurement from the government or you  can also open your own business and make a success out of it.”

    Vice Chancellor Professor Rahamon Bello told the graduants comprising 36 first class honourees that they all had a responsibility to promote the good image of the university, identify with their alma mater and contribute their widow’s mite to its development.

    He said the university would not compromise its hallmark of  producing quality first-class graduates that could compete favourably with their counterparts in any area of the world.

    “This is in line with the vision of the University of Lagos which is, to be a top class institution for the pursuit of excellence in knowledge through learning and community service. We have vigorously maintained this tradition over the years and today’s ceremony provides an opportunity to present the scorecard and the state of the university,” he said. The ceremonies continue today.

     

  • Boko Haram: Aliyu seeks IBB, Gowon, Shagari, others’ intervention

    Boko Haram: Aliyu seeks IBB, Gowon, Shagari, others’ intervention

    Governor of Niger State Babangida Aliyu wants former Nigerian leaders of Northern extraction to help in resolving the Boko Haram insurgency now into its fifth year of destruction.

    Dr. Aliyu who doubles as Chairman, Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF) asked Generals Yakubu Gowon, Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar as well as Second Republic President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, to team up with the northern governors in confronting the danger posed to the collective interest of the country by the sect.

    The governor who spoke at the first convocation of the state owned Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai said it was time to restore peace to the north.

    “We are inviting you because of your experiences and knowledge of this country. We need you to give us the political will to help us fight this battle,” he said.

    “We also need you to help the federal government and make sure that we fight Boko Haram and defeat it within the next three months. We believe that with your wisdom, we are capable of doing that.”

    The NSGF chairman lamented the bad image which the Boko Haram insurgency has given the country and name being given to the country.

    He added:”Please sirs, do it to save Nigeria and do it very soon. We are aware of these security challenges have given us a bad name and image to the extent that Nigerians are being killed abroad and nothing is done about it just because they feel we kill our own ourselves.”

    General Abdulsalmi Abubakar who was at the ceremony did not respond but nodded as if in agreement with the governor’s plea.

    Aliyu told the 1,732 graduating students that as pioneer students of the institution they would be the yardstick for measuring its academic and moral quality.

    Eight of the graduating students had first class, 324 had Second Class Upper while 902 Students made second Class Lower.

     

  • Insurgency: Gowon canvasses support for FG

    Insurgency: Gowon canvasses support for FG

    A former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon (Rtd), has challenged Nigerians to support the federal government in its efforts to tackle Boko Haram insurgency and other security challenges in the nation.

    Gowon spoke with newsmen at the weekend in Lagos after the Bar Dinner and Award Night organised by the Ikeja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). The award was part of the branch’s 2014 Law Week.

    The elder statesman said the government needs time to effectively deal with the Boko Haram insurgency and bring the conflict to an end.

    According to him: “No matter how weak your opponent is, it is going to take time to be able to resolve the issues which led to the conflict.

    “It took us about two and a half years to be able to end the civil war, but what is important is how you ended it and how you are able to reconcile and get things back to normal.”

    He condemned sections of the foreign media, which insinuated that President Goodluck Jonathan was not doing anything to address the insecurity challenges.

    “I can tell you this and I know this, the President is doing his best and don’t listen to the sort of news you hear from foreign press talking as if the government is doing nothing,” he stated.

    Gowon advised political parties to stop trading blames over the insecurity problem or seek to take advantage of the situation.

    In his address as chairman of the occasion, the former Head of State challenged lawyers to fight against all forms of injustice in the country.

    “You must fight against injustice in the society without allowing monetary gains to cloud your sense of judgment,” he said.

    Lagos State governor, Raji Fashola, commended lawyers for partnering with the state government towards creating more access to justice for indigent citizens.

    Fashola, who was represented by the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Ade Ipaye, said their responses to the state’s Public Interest Law Partnership (LPILP) were overwhelming.

    He said: “With this development, we are now able to get to a lot of people who are awaiting trial in the prisons.

    “We are now able to render services to aggrieved persons in the society who ordinarily will not be able to afford legal representation in their quest for justice.”

    Those presented with awards at the dinner included the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Ayotunde Phillips, and former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami.

    Others were Professor of International Law, Akin Oyebode;

    Lagos State Commissioner for Physical Planning, Olutoyin Ayorinde; President, Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE),Mr. Femi Adesina and late activist, Chima Ubani.

     

  • Fulani not responsible for attacks, says Gowon

    Fulani not responsible for attacks, says Gowon

    Former military Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, does not believe that Fulani herdsmen are the brains behind the recent wave of attacks in parts of the north.

    He said Nigerians should rather blame hoodlums who dress as Fulani herdsmen for the killings and destruction of property.

    Gen. Gowon, leading a delegation of the Nigeria Prays Movement of which he is head on a visit to Governor Martin Elechi of Ebonyi State in Abakaliki, said: “I find it difficult to believe that it is the Fulani herdsmen who are predominantly little children that cause the mayhem in some parts of the country.

    “These children carry sticks and lead their cattle on pasture across the country, but now some people put-on Fulani clothes and perpetrate crisis.

    “The question is how the transformation from little cattle herders to criminals took place, as we should continue to pray that God touches the hearts of these disgruntled elements to change.”

    He described prayer as the main tool necessary to solve the numerous security challenges confronting the nation.

    “The power of prayer is stronger than all physical powers we have as when it touches our souls, we become the right instruments God wants us to be,” he said.

    He added:”In the Bible, Saul was persecuting the Christians, but when God’s power touched him, he became the strongest disciple that ever propagated God’s word.”

    He said that the seriousness of the security challenges in the country makes it imperative for Nigerians to seek God’s grace to restore peace to the country.

    He asked residents of the state to turnout en masse today for the prayer summit scheduled for Abakaliki by his organisation.

    Elechi, in his response, thanked Gowon for his fatherly role in the country and for leading the vanguard to salvage the country through prayers.

    He said of the former military leader:”Gowon became head of state at the age of 31, bravely waded through the civil war period and is now leading ordained men of God to seek solutions to the nation’s problems.

    “He has remained relevant in all regimes since leaving office, both military and civilian, and he insults no one but gives fatherly advice to successive governments.”

  • Airport Terminals to be completed soon

    Airport Terminals to be completed soon

    Adequate budgetary provision has been made for the completion of remodelled airport terminals, the Managing Director, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Saleh Dunoma, said yesterday during an inspection tour of the Yakubu Gowon Airport, Jos and Kaduna International Airport.

    Dunoma charged the contractors to ensure the completion of work in good time.

    The Managing Director urged the contractors to work with the expected specification and standards.

    He further expressed appreciation over the level of commitment and improvement in the work done.

     

  • Pray for compassionate leader, Tinubu urges Nigerians

    Pray for compassionate leader, Tinubu urges Nigerians

    Senator Oluremi Tinubu (Lagos Central District) has urged Nigerians to pray for a leader with compassion.

    She said attributes lacking in our present leadership are compassion and the fear of God.

    Mrs. Tinubu said Nigerians should not wait until the country hits a brick wall before going to God in prayers, urging everyone to ask God for mercy.

    She spoke at the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Harvest House Parish in Jabi during the third edition of the Abuja Success Summit, 2014, themed: “Attainment”.

    Mrs. Tinubu said: “Some of our leaders are competent, but they lack compassion. All over the world, compassion is needed and we have to work on that.

    “We do not have to go to church to have compassion for one other. We need to go on our knees and ask God for mercy, so that in 2015, God will choose for us someone that will give us peace. It is said in his words that God’s gift will make a way and not give us sorrow. There is a lot of sorrow in the land now.”

    Other speakers at the summit were former Head of State Gen. Yakubu Gowon; former Chairman of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) Dr. Chris Kolade and former Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.

    RCCG General Overseer Pastor Enoch Adeboye, represented by the Pastor-in-charge of the Harvest House, Muyiwa Adebayo, said the success summit is a form to tell youths that success is not achieved through deceit but God’s backing.

    He said: “The speakers we invited are men and women of great courage, who have made it in life. We have seen great potentials in them. In all they said, they made us realise that they did not succeed on their own but with the help of God.

    “We are celebrating today because they know and worship God and recognise him in their success stories. Every one who wants to succeed must seek God’s help.”

  • Boko Haram: Gowon tasks Jonathan on ending killings

    Boko Haram: Gowon tasks Jonathan on ending killings

    •Challenges terrorists to come out to defend their actions

    •First Lady warns youths against election thuggery

    •Begs terrorists to stop killing students

    Former military Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, yesterday asked President Goodluck Jonathan to put an immediate end to the killing of innocent Nigerians by terrorists.

    Gowon, speaking at the National Youth Peace Concert in Abuja, also challenged the terrorists to come out to defend their actions.

    He urged Nigerians to come to the aid of the government by providing useful information about the terrorists.

    The concert was organized by the Office of the First Lady and office of the Special Adviser to the President on Youth and Students Matters.

    He said: “I call on the Federal Government, using the various security agencies to vigorously work at ending the orgy of mindless killings and mayhem across the country. But the people can also help by making sure that they give intelligence of information of where these people are coming from.”

    “Are they Nigerians that are doing these? If they are Nigerians, I challenge them to come out and defend their acts against their motherland.”

    General Gowon also asked other African leaders to “exercise the critical responsibility of leadership and rise up to the challenge of providing solution to these problems through education, employment, youth development and empowerment.”

    These actions, he stressed, “will help to stem the tendency towards violent conflicts in some parts of the country.”

    Gowon, who was the special guest of honour at the event, expressed sympathy to the families of the dead and wounded students in the recent terrorists attacks in the school in Yobe State as he condemned other similar attacks.

    “You must reject acts of violence of any sort. But you must embrace and build trust and confidence among one another for the eternal good of your respective countries and your continent,” he told the youths at the occasion.

    The First Lady and President of African First Ladies Peace Mission, Dame Patience Jonathan, advised Nigerian youths to shun thuggery among other crimes as the 2015 general elections approach.

    Urging Nigerians to forgive one another and work together, she charged them to be peace ambassadors in their homes, community, states and Nigeria and the continent as a whole.

    She said: “I want you to go out there to preach peace for me. Why are our brothers killing one another? Let us not allow outsiders to come and cause confusion for us. We need everyone to be alive to build a strong nation.

    “I am really pained; I don’t know how to say enough is enough. I have prayed in my bedroom. I want God to hear and answer me. We are killing one another. Let God, Allah touch our hearts. Let us stop killing one another.”

    “I am deeply pained and I wish you can help me today. The youths, you are my hope. I have called on my fellow women and yet help is still not coming, the men have tried and yet no help. So, I am calling on you the youth. I want you to be alive for me. I want Nigeria to be as it was before.”

    She went on: “No matter the religion we have, we pray to one God. Allah is the same as God. Everything we do, God is seeing us. Let them cease from torching schools and killing students. I want you to be my ambassadors as you leave here. Carry my message along with you. From today, don’t call me First Lady Dame Patience, call me ‘Mama Peace’.”

    On the 2015 election, she said: “I am crying and begging you, don’t be used. Election is coming, they will come to you. Why are they not using their children? Their children are in schools abroad. They don’t have money to feed you, but they have money to buy grenades for you. Please don’t take it again. I want you to stay alive for me.”

    After releasing100 white doves as symbols of peace in Nigeria and the continent at the occasion, she was presented with two awards for her role in promoting peace in the continent.

    The First Lady of South Africa, Mrs. N. Zuma, who spoke on behalf of the African First Ladies Peace Mission, maintained that no meaningful development can be achieved in any society except peace is first achieved.

    She urged the youths in the continent to continue to stand for love and peace in order to end the crises across the continent.

    Among the dignitaries at the occasion were the First Lady of Sudan and other Regional Vice Presidents of the African First Ladies Peace Mission, the Wife of the Senate President, Helen Mark, First Ladies from various states of the Federation.

    Various Christian and Muslim leaders in the country also spoke at the occasion preaching love and peace in the country.

    TuFace Idibia, Onyeka Onwenu, and artiste from Cote’d Ivoire, Katara were among the artists that performed at the occasion.

    The concert was attended by thousands of youths that stormed the city from various states of the Federation.

  • No surprise Nigeria stagnated for decades

    No surprise Nigeria stagnated for decades

    Much more than the mileage the Jonathan presidency hoped to achieve with the emblazoning photograph of past Nigerian rulers wearing their medals and displaying their centennial award certificates late last month, the picture actually tells a far more poignant and iconic story. There were seven of them: Abdulsalami Abubakar, Muhammadu Buhari, Yakubu Gowon, Olusegun Obasanjo, Shehu Shagari, Ibrahim Babangida and Ernest Shonekan. Smack in the middle was, of course, President Goodluck Jonathan himself. Given his predilection for sham celebrations, it is surprising he did not seize upon the same argument of the centenary to award himself a certificate of honour. In any case, Dr Jonathan was the only one in the pictures published on March 1 newspapers not brandishing a certificate. Others dutifully wore their medals and/or displayed their certificates, thereby indicating their concurrence with the queer and questionable philosophy behind the centenary as well as the disgraceful rational for picking the honourees.

    The photograph, though powerful and resonating, nevertheless tells the very depressing story of futile uniformity and lack of rigour. It tells the story of former rulers whose unquestioning perspective and fondness for the meretricious led them to embrace a project as wasteful as it is truly and totally mendacious. None of the seven questioned the ideological basis for the centenary, nor joined issues with the financially oblique accounting system that made the celebrations possible. None of them was politically conscious enough to appreciate the centenary’s distortionary effects on our history and identities. There was none of them with enough sagacity to disprove the base and conflicting logic that underlined the compilation of the list of honourees, thus indicating that the former rulers were insensitive to their own individual legacies and unable to disambiguate legacy as a word and concept.

    The group photograph of former rulers should illustrate the power and glory of Nigeria, of our best men and leaders, of the rich custodians of our politics, culture and essence. Instead, the group photograph illustrated something so surrealistic it is a miracle the country has not collapsed under the weight of their collective obscurantism. They had no idea what our history says, of how we were humiliated and traumatised with a lasting injury by colonialism, of how Lugard’s foundational rule and years of self-misrule combined to misshape our values and enthrone a vicious form of mental and economic slavery. It was therefore okay by them to celebrate, and to carry out that sickening exercise in company with one another, the liar with the perjurer, the tyrant with the murderer, the inept with the experimentalist.

    The photograph inferentially tells the numbing story of how and why the country decayed so badly for decades, and by their admission, now needs revolutionary work to salvage, if indeed, as one of them said, it can still be salvaged. If they could not question Dr Jonathan’s frivolity and rebuff it, if they did not understand the history of the country they led for decades, and if they were unable to share its pains and sorrows, how indeed could they fashion brilliant and workable plans for its development and greatness? How could they make it the pride of the black race? To participate in Dr Jonathan’s revelry, they must have gone to extraordinary lengths to muffle their consciences, and to shut the tap of remorse which a clear mind and ample soul sometimes lead a decent man and patriot to demonstrate.

    The photograph of the eight men reminds us how our country was ruined. Gowon dishonoured his word and rendered it impotent; Shagari’s stolidity and indulgence clogged the national arteries until we choked; Buhari had little or no appreciation of the rights and freedoms of man, and how man is ennobled by these attributes; Babangida was the inappropriate watershed between the age of innocence and the age of vice, as he gave birth to the worst in us; and Shonekan was the bemused and amoral inheritor of a stolen legacy. Abubakar’s misguided and messianic reign produced the highly schizoid Obasanjo who had, and still has, no capacity for differentiating between truth and falsehood. And Obasanjo archetypically begat meddlesomeness in such a manner that the country’s ruin was complete under his predecessors.

    Yes, it was just one simple photograph published in newspapers. But, alas, it told a million sad stories, unknown to the former rulers who lined up quizzically for the photograph on February 28, and perhaps unfeeling.

     

  • Boko Haram: End killings, Gowon urges Jonathan

    Former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon has  called on President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration to vigorously work at ending the mindless killings and mayhem across the country.

    The Islamic sect, Boko Haram and other terrorists groups have continued to kill innocent Nigerians in the north eastern part of the country.

    Gowon, while speaking at the National Youth Peace Concert held at the Eagle Squares, Abuja on Saturday  also challenged the terrorists to come out to defend their actions.

    He urged Nigerians to come to the aid of the government by providing useful information about the terrorists.

    The Concert was organized by the Office of the First Lady and office of the Special Adviser to the President on Youth and Students Matters.

    He said: “I call on the Federal Government, using the various security agencies to vigorously work at ending the orgy of mindless killings and mayhem across the country. But the people can also help by making sure that they give intelligence of information of where these people are coming from.”

    “Are they Nigerians that are doing these? If they are Nigerians, I challenge them to come out and defend their acts against their motherland.”

    Calling on African leaders to rise to the occasion and stop crisis in Africa, he said:  “May I also use this medium to call on our leaders , not only in Nigeria but across Africa, to exercise the critical responsibility of leadership and rise up to the challenge of providing solution to these problems through education,employment, youth development and empowerment.”

    “These actions will help to stem the tendency towards violent conflicts in some parts of the country.” He added

    Gowon, who was the special guest of honour at the event, also expressed sympathy to the families of the dead and wounded students in the recent terrorists attacks in the school in Yobe State as he condemned  other similar attacks.

    “You must reject acts of violence of any sort. But you must embrace and build trust and confidence among one another for the eternal good of your respective countries band your continent.” He told the youths at the occasion.

    The Nigeria’s First Lady and President of African First Ladies Peace Mission, Dame Patience Jonathan  called on youths in the country to shun being lured into election thuggery among other crimes as the 2015 general elections approaches.

    Urging Nigerians to forgive one another and work together, she charged the youths to be peace ambassadors in their homes, community, states and Nigeria and the continent as a whole.

    She said: “I want you to go out there to preach peace for me. Why are our brothers killing one another? Let us not allow outsiders to come and cause confusion for us. We need everyone to be alive to build a strong nation.”

    “I am really pained, I don’t know how to say enough is enough. I have prayed in my bedroom. I want God to hear and answer me. We are killing one another. Let God, Allah touch our hearts. Let us stop killing one another.”

    “I am deeply pained and I wish you can help me today. The youths, you are my hope. I have called on my fellow women and yet help is still not coming, the men have tried and yet no help. So, I am calling on you the youth. I want you to be alive for me. I want Nigeria to be as it was before.”

    She went on: “No matter the religion we have,  we pray to one God. Allah us the same as God. Everything we do, God is seeing us. Let them cease from touching schools and killing students. I want you to be my ambassadors as you leave here. Carry my message along with you. From today, don’t call me First Lady Same Patience, call me ‘Mama Peace’.

    On forthcoming election, she said: “I am crying and begging you, don’t be used. Election is coming, they will come to you. Why are they not using their children? Their children are in schools abroad. They don’t have money to feed you, but they have money to buy grenades for you. Please don’t take it again. I want you to stay alive for me.”

    After releasing100 white doves  as symbol of peace in Nigeria and the continent at the occasion, she was presented with two awards for her role in promoting peace in the continent.

    Also speaking at the occasion, the Wife of the Vice President, Hajiya Amina Sambo called all Nigerians to continue to promote peace and love in order to overcome the various security challenges facing the nation.

    Stressing that the occasion was imperative because of the various security challenges facing the nation, she urged the youths not to allow themselves to be used to destroy the future of Nigeria by anybody, but channel their energies to positive uses.

    She also maintained that the fast eroding of Nigeria’s religious and cultural values call for serious concern by those who genuinely love the country.

    “Let us all promote love and peace in the nation. It is time to wage peace and not war. Let us all be peace advocates …to end the threat to peace in our nation.” She stated

    The First Lady of South Africa, Mrs. N. Zuma, who spoke on behalf of the African First Ladies Peace Mission maintained that no meaningful development can be achieved in any society except peace is first archived.

    She urged the youths in the continent to continue to stand for love and peace in order to end the crises across the continent.

    Among the dignitaries that graced the occasion include First Lady of Sudan and other Regional Vice Presidents of the African First Ladies Peace Mission, the Wife of the Senate President, Helen Mark, First Ladies from various states of the Federation.

    Various Christian and Muslim leaders in the country also spoke at the occasion preaching love and peace in the country.

    TuFace Idibia, Onyeka Onwenu, and artiste from Cote’dIvoire, Katara were among the artiste that performed at the occasion.

    The concert was attended by thousands of youths that stormed the city from various states of the Federation.

  • Nigeria has come to stay, says Obasanjo

    Nigeria has come to stay, says Obasanjo

    •As Buhari, IBB, others inspire younger generation

    Former Presidents and Heads of State have expressed gratitude to President Goodluck Jonathan for the Centenary awards he gave them in Abuja on Friday.

    They declared that Nigeria has come to stay having survived for the past 100 years.

    Seven past leaders -Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, General Yakubu Gowon, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, General Muhammadu Buhari, General Ibrahim Babangida, Chief Ernest Shonekan and General Abdusalami Abubakar were honoured as ‘outstanding promoters of unity, patriotism and National Development’ at the State House, Abuja.

    The former Nigerian leaders called for greater security and unity in the country and charged the future generations to strive to take the country to greater heights by achieving giant’s strides than the old and outgoing generation.

    Obasanjo said: “The award means Nigeria is making progress. If Nigeria survived the first 100 years, it means that Nigeria has come to stay.”

    Buhari: said: “The award means a lot to me to be qualified to be recognised by Nigerians. My wish for Nigeria is security.”

    General Babangida said: “The award means a lot. Most of us that were awarded today, the younger generation should try to emulate us because they will survive their sources of inspiration and aspiration.”

    On his part, Abdulsalami Abubakar said: “Nigeria has come a long way and we thank God. The future generation should try and do better than what we have done and keep this country together.”

    “The award means a lot to me. It makes me feel to work harder for the unity and progress of the country.” Shonekan stated